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In the USA (Today) and Spain

Today’s editions of USA Today in many regions of the country include a special section on the nuclear energy industry. The section includes a foreword by NEI President and CEO Marvin Fertel on the value of nuclear energy as well as articles and advertising from many nuclear energy companies. This isn’t online, so it actually requires getting the fingers a little inky to read it. But it’s USA Today – it’s just about everywhere. (If I can get hold of a pdf version, I’ll post it for you.)

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Twenty Greenpeace activists entered a nuclear reactor compound in eastern Spain early Tuesday and several of them climbed a refrigeration tower to protest the use of nuclear power, a Spanish official and Greenpeace spokeswomen said.

There are a fair number of places where this kind of stunt might well make you a martyr to your cause. But as long as no one is hurt, Greenpeace’s little stabs at publicity will fall on fishy eyes that view the merry prankster approach as awfully yesterday. But wait:

A plant security guard was "slightly injured" by the activists as they entered. The guard was treated at the plant medical facility, the government spokeswoman said.

That’s not good at all and a real invitation to trouble. I can’t speak to plant security in Spain but this kind of interaction seems almost inconceivable in the United States – not just going onto the plant grounds without severe trouble ensuing but knocking around a security guard, something that would be greeted very darkly here – and should be.

Protesting si, mischief quizas, injury no.

The town and the plant share the same name – Asco. Spain has nine reactors at seven sites.

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